Poet’s Morning: Staring Down the Storm

good morning, Muse.

Stopping by before the storm?

paying a visit?

slapping down your hand on the table asking for some of that cooked-ahead-of-time flounder, and burger, and panko-zucchini, that tuna steak chunk…that beef fajitas strip-meat?

you love the fried food as I do & we grin, cleaning up the kitchen together.

will you help me pack the bugout bag?

will you watch the videos of North Carolina over my shoulder with me?

Will you put your hand across my mouth when I shout my truth out loud …

that truth few seem to wanna hear?

you & I know I can’t keep it to myself.

come with me, let’s open the door

to the peace of the held-in breath

soon the world will crack open

with rain, with wind, with trees bending to the will of fury

ginned up by the ill will of darkness.

Grab a chair, Lady, let’s stare down the storm.

= = = =

this is a Florida morning, not a mountain in sight

insight

this is a day like no other

unique in a dawn promising way more to come in terms of

the adventure of life.

no idea how I got here

it was just an idea: this life

it was diving into the body that would (heh heh) expand with use

grow outward with caloric intake, enlarge even as my mind slims lean

simmering

with thinking about love, with leaning into Love.

i have sat at every table.

i have partaken only some of this & some of that.

sometimes dyspeptic but mostly dipping it into oil & frying it with spices

i can taste.

(seems an irony too big to bear to be unable to taste anymore)

but hell, I know what’s under the Masterpiece is a masterpiece of cellular

structure becoming part of me

exchanging Grace out loud before digging in!

= = = = =

Rescue me, retrieve me

i’ve seen the world from a wall of water before,

from the top of the wave

watching the ship go down

watching the once upon a time spear of the mast

sink below the blue surge

i’ve breathed the water

breathing out of my body

escaping the sluggish movement

of swimming limbs in cold/cold/colder

to fly over the sea

to find an island

to sit on a limb

to preen my feathers

my soul hitches a ride

to heaven’s before & after

i join hands with All That Is

as we laugh about everything that just happened

saying, “can you believe that?!?”

= = = = =

I’m no braver than you

my soul will never get this life together

like yours n yours n yours

my truth will not live to your standards

but even under this burden of perceiving disappointment

this little poem rises

a bubble in the swamp

a burst of iridescence

fragile as a baby’s laugh

fraught with joy wreaked from a poet’s life

seeing the seeking as the only truth

not the arrival but only the journey

pacing down the world

across the spheres

bending a knee to none

even the backpack slung under a tree

to travel free.

= = = = = =

The recklessness of love

choosing me as the object of its affection!

my voice scrapes across the spheres

to find a way to say how much love there is

in this world, to know only love to chant

under the breath of my mother

putting me to breast

to feel that love

as the warm palm of my father

patting my bottom: I sit upon his arm

giggling in the miracle of being held

the song rose then & stayed with me:

that one moment raised me into a heaven

too seldom experienced, yet known

somehow familiar

there was only that hallelujah of a moment

imprinted on a tender heart.

no matter a future of ashes & pain

no matter the darkness rising again

there’s always that music alive in me

vanquishing fear underfoot

my enemies are astounded

i can summon it up

breaking through their snarl

to live so alive & on & on & on…

= = = = =

skipping on the lightning

aiming for my feet

i laugh aloud at the wreckage

the detritus

i bless the mess

i’ve made; i see the next choice

coming up – i grab that golden ring,

holding it a moment to my chest

before flinging it to the crowd

the galloping carousel

will bring me here again

a grumble of machinery

the painted horses sing

i have only to reach

to have that golden ring!

= = = = =

I am free again –

have i said those words before?

have i died again to a life

of no nourishment

no breath?

yes, in deed, indeed

i walk away in an exaltation

of light, restored

to my self: to the greatness God intended me to be!

i bathe in the mercy of light

i move the mountain along with me

just to have a view.

= = = = =